Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy (Part 7)

Sramana: Why did you decide it was so important to physically move to Silicon Valley? I have been here for 16 years and I love it, but why does a $20 million profitable company move here?

Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: The transition to a SaaS company was painful, both on the technology and business side. We could not get a lot of talent where we were. We came here and saw how companies here solved the problems. We were looking for SaaS expertise and needed that new blood in our company. We needed a true expert management team.

Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: We have been internationally focused since the day we started the business. We have customers in 20 countries. We have offices in Calgary, Toronto, here, and Bangalore. A lot of entrepreneurs get a advice to focus on growing locally. For us, having a global outlook has helped us. We are getting more and more global customers who are just looking for a good customer experience and a great product.

Sramana: There are pros and cons. People can find you on the Internet, and as long as they are satisfied with the product that is good. However, there is an overhead for globalized customers. It may not make sense to localize a product for France or China if you don’t have the resources to do it. 

Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: That is definitely true. We had those considerations as well.

Sramana: Obviously you have built a successful business while being married. How does that work?

Raj Narayanaswamy: It works very well when I just agree with whatever she says! Joking aside, we separated the areas of our focus broadly. I focused on engineering and operations and she focused on sales and marketing. We operated from our strengths.

Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: We had a personal coach to help us navigate our strengths and help us grow. That was very beneficial for us. We were able to lift each other.

Sramana: Did you have any major conflicts while working so closely together?

Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: Nothing major. We had small conflicts trying to ensure we did not work on the same things.

Sramana: It sounds like you both have a lot of respect for each other and you are a balanced couple. Is that a fair observation? 

Raj Narayanaswamy: We are both strong minded in our convictions, but I don’t think one of us dominates over the other. It works very well and we get this question regularly. Our typical answer is that our relationship just works.

Sramana: I think whatever you are doing is working just fine. If you have come to the point of $20 million without outside financing, then you are doing something right. I hope you don’t take any more financing in the future, either.

Raj Narayanaswamy: We are being seduced by venture capitalists all the time. That is actually a question we are thinking about now. We definitely will not give up any control of our company.

Sramana: You will attract money. VCs love it when entrepreneurs have taken all the risk on themselves and left them to collect on the end. Between the two of you and your angel investor you have a high-profit, high-growth venture. Growing from here with other financing is much easier. You could do receivable financing. Those kinds of options would address any cash flow needs that you may have. I don’t see the point of VC capital at this point.

Lakshmi Narayanaswamy: Thank you. That is a slap that we both needed!

Sramana: Thank you both for taking the time to talk with me. I look forward to following your future success. 

This segment is part 7 in the series : Bootstrapping To 20 Million: Replicon Co-Founders Raj And Lakshmi Narayanaswamy
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